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The Difficulties of Making Maps

If you’ve worked with maps, digital or conventional,
you’ll know that despite my enthusiasm, mapping isn’t always easy. Why
do we often find it so difficult to make maps of the world around us?
How well could you map out the way you normally drive to the
supermarket? Usually, it’s easier to describe your
trip than it is to draw a map. Perhaps we have a perception of what a
map must look like and therefore are afraid to draw our own, thinking it
might look silly in comparison. Yet some maps drawn by a friend on a
napkin might be of more use than any professional city map could ever
be.

Personal Maps

The element of personal knowledge, rather
than general knowledge, is what can make a
somewhat useful map into one that is very powerful. When words fail to
describe the location of something that isn’t general knowledge, a map
can round out the picture for you. Maps can be used to supplement a
verbal description, but because creating a map involves drawing a
perspective from your head, it can be very intimidating. That
intimidation and lack of ownership over maps has created an
interesting dilemma. In our minds, maps are something that
professionals create, not the average person. Yet
a map like the one shown in Figure 1-1 can have much more
meaning to someone than a professional map of the same area. So what
are the professional maps lacking? They show mostly common information
and often lack personal information that would make the map more
useful or interesting to you.

Technology Barriers

Digital mapping isn’t a new topic. Ever since computers
could create graphic representations of the earth, people have been
creating maps with them. In early computing, people used to draw with
ASCII text-based maps. (I remember creating ASCII maps for
role-playing games on a Tandy color computer.) However, designing
graphics with ASCII symbols wasn’t pretty. Thankfully, more
sophisticated graphic techniques on personal computers allow you to
create your own high-quality maps.

You might already be creating your own maps but aren’t satisfied
with the tools. For some, the cost of commercial tools can be
prohibitive, especially if you just want to play around for a while to
get a feel for the craft. Open source software alleviates the need for
immediate, monetary payback on investment.

For others, cost may not be an issue but capabilities are. Just
like proprietary software, open source mapping products vary in their
features. Improved features might include ease of use or quality of
output. One major area of difference is in how products communicate
with other products. This is called
interoperability and refers to the ability of a
program to share data or functions with another program. These often
adhere to open standards—protocols for
communication between applications. The basic idea is to define
standards that aren’t dependent on one particular software package;
they would depend instead on the communication process a developer
decided to implement. An example of these standards in action is the
ability of your program to request maps from another mapping program
over the Internet. The real power of open standards is evident when
your program can communicate with a program developed by a different
group/vendor. This is a crucial issue for many large organizations,
especially government agencies, where sharing data across departments
can make or break the efficiency in that organization. Products that
implement open standards will help to ensure the long-term viability
of applications you build. Be warned, however, that some products
claim to be interoperable yet stop

Open Source Software

Open source software refers to a type of software product that has the
programming source code available. This may not seem important for
nonprogrammers, but it has very serious implications in today’s
software industry. Programmers who decide to release their work as
open source choose an open source license to cover their program. In
most cases, these licenses help make the program freely
available.

There are thousands of programmers and supporters of open
source projects. They come from government agencies, nonprofit
groups, academia, and even private industry. Some businesses make
all their source code openly available, and their clients simply pay
for them to make improvements to the code.

Public and private groups have been working on mapping or
geographic information system (GIS) projects and releasing them as
open source. This means that the program itself is free and, if you
have the ability and desire, you can modify it to suit your
needs.

The key to open source software is
freedom—freedom to use and change a program as
required. This book focuses on open source mapping and GIS
tools.

For more information on open source software see the following
resources:

short of implementing the full standards. Some companies modify
the standards for their product, defeating the purpose of those
standards. Interoperability standards are also relatively young and in
a state of flux.

Costs and capabilities may not be the main barrier for you.
Maybe you want to create your own maps but don’t know how. Maybe you
don’t know what tools are available. This book describes some of the
free tools available to you, to get you moving toward your end goal of
map production.

Another barrier might be that you lack the technical know-how
required for digital mapping. While conventional mapping techniques
cut out most of the population, digital mapping techniques also
prohibit people who aren’t very tech-savvy. This is because installing
and customizing software is beyond the scope of many computer users.
The good news is that those who are comfortable with the customization
side of computerized mapping can create easy-to-use tools for others.
This provides great freedom for both parties. Those who have mastered
the computer skills involved gain by helping fill other’s needs. New
users gain by being able to view mapping information with minimal
effort through an existing mapping application.

Technological barriers exist, but for those who can use a
computer and want to do mapping with that computer, the possibilities
are endless. The mapping tools described here aren’t necessarily easy
to use: they require a degree of technical skill. Web mapping programs
are more complicated than traditional desktop software. There are
often no simple, automated installation procedures, and some custom
configuration is required. But in general, once set up, the tools
require minimal intervention.

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